 He is sometimes referred to as the Socrates of architecture since his own writings have been lost his theories are only known from the works of others.Together with architects and architectural theorists including Claude Perrault, Abbé Jean-Louis de Cordemoy, Abbé Marc-Antoine Laugier, Lodoli articulated a rational architecture which challenged the prevailing Baroque and Rococo styles.Girolamo Zanetti records that after 20 years of writing Lodoli finished his treatise on architecture but refused to publish it.